Working at the intersection of technology and financial reporting as we do at Risclarity has given us the unique opportunity to understand what helps small businesses leap forward as they move to taking their operations to scale. One of the hurdles in the critical path to growth is operational efficiency. Making strategic technology selections can help a business overcome that hurdle. As we look at 2021, inspired by the mantra “focus on one thing” from one of our recent industry forums, we see that businesses poised for growth can increase operational efficiency if they look to technology to achieve one thing: closing their company’s security and privacy gaps.
There are a variety of reasons why closing security and privacy gaps should be prioritized. Generally speaking, it’s just good business, but in a time of growth, it’s critical. As a company grows, the unaddressed security and privacy concerns grow with them. If a company waits to address this until they have grown, the problem they are facing has only become bigger, more intertwined with their processes, more difficult and more expensive to solve. For many industries like financial services and healthcare, security and privacy is not only important, it is regulated. For companies working in these industries, growth is stalled without starting with security and privacy. Finally, even without growth, issues caused by gaps in security and privacy can sideline a company at unexpected moments. Particularly as the workforce is distributed geographically and working remotely, the potential for serious security breaches that disrupt business operations and foment customer distrust are increasing.
Depending on the size and nature of your business, security and privacy have a varying degree of visibility and impact. We recommend companies start with these steps:
Now, more than ever, businesses need to consider the security and privacy of their operations. Technology can provide robust solutions, but only if a business is ready to study their workflows, identify their gaps, acquire the expertise to act, and get the buy-in of their employees. The way we see it, if you keep only one resolution this year for your business, this one will set your company on a path to resilience, scalability, and growth.
Original article published in the Denver Journal Leadership Trust on Feb. 09, 2021.